spacejunkie

I'm going to read the Bible cover to cover and take notes on each chapter. My plan is to read at least one chapter per day and write a short summery which will highlight all that I find interesting. Right now I'm thinking that I'll use the NIV. That decision is based on a few things:

1. I have one that I can carry around easily.
2. The full text can be found at The Bible Gateway.
3. This site convinced me that it may be more true to the original then many older texts such as the KJV.

Does anyone have any advice, questions or comments that might help make this effort more effortless and/or valuable?

Thanks in advance.

spacejunkie

Apparently God starts out by creating the Heavens and the Earth which begs the question, What (not to mention where and how) was God doing before the He “created” everything? Next He says, “Let there be light,” and then proceeds to separate light from darkness. He calls the light “day,” and the darkness “night.” Thus the first day on Earth comes and goes. :wave:

On day two God creates Earth’s water cycle via the sky. :notworthy:


On day three God gathers all the surface waters to “one place” and calls it/them “seas.” How can “one place” be pluralized? I can’t read Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek but it seems like something may have been lost in translation here. Next He creates vegetation and day three comes to an end.

On day four God creates “lights” in the sky to separate day from night and mark the seasons. Hold on! Stop the presses! Didn’t He already do this on day one? Maybe He’s just being thorough. Anyway He makes two lights one to govern day and one to govern night. Now I’m guessing the light to govern day is the Sun but the light to govern night has me baffled. Maybe it’s not around anymore and I’ll find out about its demise if I just keep reading. The Book then goes on to say that, “He also made the starts.” But the Sun is a star! Maybe I assumed too much when I wrote that the light to govern day was the Sun. Color me confused.

On day five God creates the creatures of the sea and air, specifically, “every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind.” So apparently that includes both extinct and viable life forms. Again my expertise fails me as I am not an evolutionary biologist but this does seem a bit contrary to popular belief. Color me an even darker shade of confused. :banghead:

On day six God lets the land produce land dwelling creatures. Then He says, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” Who’s He talking to, Himself, Herself, Itself? The book consistently refers to God as a man but Genesis 1:26-27 makes me think He’s some sort of schizophrenic hermaphrodite. He then commands that man procreate and “subdue” the Earth and all its living creatures. Well at least we’ve gotten that bit right, mostly, I think. :huh:

CalUWxBill

Do you plan on keeping this thread the whole way through, it would be interesting. I'm pretty sure the Moon is the night light, but of course the Moon is not always visible at night.

Peter Kirby

You're going to poop out somewhere around Leviticus, if not before. They always do. :devil1:

No Robots

LOL. True, true. That's where I pooped out when, years ago, I resolved to read the Bible.

After my follicly-challenged brother got married overseas, I was asked to play the role of officiating minister at a mock wedding with the family. I looked and looked for a good passage. Leviticus (chap. 13) came through:

And the man whose hair is fallen off his head, he is bald; yet is he clean.

And he that hath his hair fallen off from the part of his head toward his face, he is forehead bald: yet is he clean.

And if there be in the bald head, or bald forehead, a white reddish sore; it is a leprosy sprung up in his bald head, or his bald forehead.

Then the priest shall look upon it: and, behold, if the rising of the sore be white reddish in his bald head, or in his bald forehead, as the leprosy appeareth in the skin of the flesh;

He is a leprous man, he is unclean: the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague is in his head.

And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.

ckile

Hahaha, nice.

fromdownunder

It's a lot quicker if you leave out all the bits about begat. What were they in the OT? Bloody rabbits?

Norm

Apikorus

David Plotz over at the e-zine Slate.com has an almost-complete series on the Hebrew Bible, called Blogging the Bible. Parts of it are quite good.

judge

Thanks for that just been getting into Job.